I recently had a discussion with a friend about (of all things) jay walking. I know. I know. Get a life, right? 😉

But…Wait! Don’t go away.
I have a BIG point to make at the end of this blog. Please stay with me to the end.

In the discussion with my friend, my thoughts were: The crosswalk is there for a reason! Jay walking is against the law. His thoughts were: Who cares? Especially if there is no traffic or it is late at night. Just be careful when crossing. So, he felt it really doesn’t matter.

What do you think? Does it matter even when no one sees? Even when there are no police to write a ticket? Even when there’s no traffic? Don’t click out of this…stay with me. Let’s start with…

Definition: jay walking
n. walking across a street outside of marked cross-walks and not at a corner, and/or against a signal light. If there is vehicle traffic or clear markings of a place to cross, this is a traffic misdemeanor subject to fine, and may be (but not conclusively) contributory negligence in the event of injury to the jay walker by a vehicle.

The origins of the term: jay walking
It began as a term that was actually a slur by people who could afford a car against those who were too poor to be able to afford one. So, anyone that crossed in the middle of the street in an unsafe place was obviously a country person unfamiliar with the rules for pedestrians in the city. The term actually came to mean even worse than that. Apparently it was actually a general term used by “city folk” to mean a person was a “country bumpkin”. A “hick”.

Back to the original question
Does it matter? REALLY??? What do you think?

Let’s go a bit further. Past the jay walking question. Here’s why I asked you to stay with me. I’m getting to the shocking discovery I had. What about other things that we can so easily all rationalize away as unimportant, until they actually becomes the norm because “everyone does it”. Let me give some examples.

What about…
1. Using your personal social media during work hours
2. Arriving 10 minutes late to work each day
3. Leaving 10 minutes early

After all, no one sees. This is especially easy if there is no time clock to punch in or out. And, since it seems everyone does it. No problem. It’s only 10 minutes here and there, right? No big deal! But, is it a bigger deal than we may think? I was curious, so…

I decided to do some calculating
(Be prepared to be as shocked as I was.)

10 minutes x 5 days = 50 minutes/week
50 minutes x 4 weeks =200 minutes/month
200 minutes x 50 weeks (2 weeks = vacation) = 10,000 minutes/year
10,000 minutes divided by 60 minutes = 166 hours/year

Vacations really, really matter to us
We look forward to the time off. And since vacations are normally at least 2 weeks, what is that in hours?

2 weeks x 40 hours = 80 hours vacation per year. Cool, right? In our culture, vacations are viewed as a “right”. Part of a benefit package. Something OWED to us by the employer. The example above (10 minute bits of time each day) when calculated out, turned out to be the equivalent of more than 4 weeks of vacation. TAKEN from the employer. WOW! Stunning! Surprising to me! What about you?

Counter cultural thinking
As Christians, we can easily get caught up into stinkin’ thinkin’ and “claim our rights”. We can begin to fall into a state of ingratitude, rather than to be grateful that the vacation time is actually FREELY given to us by the employer. The boss. What if we stopped taking things that don’t belong to us…like time? What would that do for our testimony if we were quietly different than others? What if we gave our bosses an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay? What if we only took what was freely given? What if we were truly grateful for our vacations. Time GIVEN to us by the employer. Gratitude. It matters.

“Little things” add up. They matter. Agree? Disagree? Why or why not?